Fantasy Baseball Hot Stove’s Offseason Schedule

What a horrible end to the season for a Red Sox fan. The month in general more than last night. Even if the Sox had gotten in the playoffs, it was pretty clear they were not going to be a threat. At the very least, the games had more meaning and were therefore more entertaining yesterday, but the season is over. And with it the fantasy season comes to an end. Hopefully your season was more successful than mine.

In my two head to head leagues I made the playoffs and lost in the first and second round respectively. In my NL Only, my co-manager and I ditched the 2011 season in August and traded for Bryce Harper – ultimately finishing in 7th. In my AL Only, my brother and I choked a first place first half away to limp into third. In my expert league with Fox I finished in second and in my expert league with Charlie Saponara of FB365 I finished in third. Finally in my traditional roto league I finished in second for a third straight season. That’s seven leagues, 6 top three finishes, and most importantly zero titles.

Now that the year is over, it’s time to regroup and get ready for next season. During the postseason we will not be posting much if anything in order to put together the preseason rankings for the 2012 season. Once again we will post one player profile per day from the day after the World Series ends until Opening Day. Thanks for reading all preseason and season long. We can’t wait to start talking about strategy for next season. Until then, good luck with fantasy football and enjoy baseball’s playoffs.

Baseball is a Simple Game

The joy of the game is in the playing. Yeah, I played organized ball from the time I was about 9 years old. But I played a lot more baseball in the backyard and on vacant lots as a kid than I ever did at the practice field or Little League field.

You can still get a wooden baseball bat for $25. And yeah, you can get them for over $100 too. Take the game back to wood. Otherwise it’s all about the money. The only good thing about the “BBCOR” bats is that the “ping” sound is replaced by something closer to the old fashioned “crack” of a wooden bat. If schools and coaches and leagues are concerned about breaking wooden bats, well then teach the kids to bat properly and breakage will be diminished. In my American Legion days, I saved my money and spend about $10 to buy a pro-model Louisville Slugger, Nellie Fox bat and it never broke. I took care of it. And by the way, I was a .300 plus hitter.

This sport is pricing itself out of the range for way too many kids—just like football has done. It’s gotten away from being a game and is purely an “organized” sport anymore.

And that’s too bad. Because baseball is a simple game…

My Afterlife Series - Dissing Anxiety

I don’t have much respect for anxiety. My own anxiety is ridiculously annoying. I was never an anxious person until that cancer diagnosis came from out of the blue. Now I worry about my health all the time. I have read that anxiety serves a purpose: to keep you aware of potential danger, but when you really think about it, anxiety just keeps you in a perpetual state of worry. That can’t be healthy, it just can’t. So I’m doing what I can to kick anxiety out of my head, out of my house, out of my life.

I was recently told about a person who will say, “shut up!” loudly, whenever her anxiety comes creeping along. I love that. I like the idea of telling the voice in my head, the one that keeps advising me to brood over the denial I’m obviously in, about the disease I probably have, to just SHUT UP. If I have to say it out loud, no problem, I’ve been caught talking to myself before. When you see me mumbling out of the corner of my mouth, just ignore me. There are lots of external ways to deal with anxiety. Topping the list is exercise and eating lots of vegetables. Those can be counted on to cure all kinds of things. My most unique trick came from my friend LuAnn who introduced me to a Tibetan singing bowl. She and I went into a little shop full of metal bowls of all sizes, each with its own mallet that you use to gong the bowl. I was skeptical, but LuAnn said that as I gonged each one of these pretty bowls, I would find the one that resonated with me. She was right. I felt a beautiful sense of calm when I listened to the note, tone and vibration of one of the bowls that I held in my hand, so I bought it. I find that it only takes 3 gongs to bring about a peacefulness that never disappoints me. It’s a lovely thing, and its quick. The thing I have found that quiets my anxiety best is anything that reminds me of the inner strength I have. Some people question whether or not they have inner strength. Maybe they haven’t had any reason to call upon it yet, but we all have it. Thing is, it just sits there politely and doesn’t speak up until its needed. Whiny anxiety over there has never considered being so solicitous. Once you call upon your inner strength, you will find that it has a roar that will leave you feeling empowered and capable, not vulnerable and fearful. It’s a pretty admirable character. I like it. So, I seek out reminders that allow me to see my buddy, inner strength, sitting there on the bench…waving… I have a hat that my friend Ellen gave to me with a slogan that says “Fight Like A Girl.” I wore it throughout my illness and I still wear it when I need to feel feisty in the face of some new worry. I have some bracelets that I wear with sayings written on them that also remind me that I have a lot of inner strength. My husband fiddles with his wedding ring when he’s looking for his. It reminds him of his family and he finds that comforting and strengthening. I need to work on finding some internal ways of calling up my inner strength. I like wearing my jewelry, my hat, gonging my bowl, but I’m now looking for that thing that kicks in automatically when my mind strays to that worrying place. What if I still have cancer? What if I have some other illness? What will happen to my family? Maybe I should look up symptoms? Or maybe I should just … SHUT UP. How do you find your inner strength?

My Afterlife Series - Will You Dance at the Party?

I am running down the hall. In the living room there is a party going on and women are dancing to the music. I’m nervous. Very very nervous. One of the women calls to me. Suuuusaaaaan. Its yooooouuurr turrrrnnn! She has a feather boa in her hands and she wants me to shimmy my way into the center of the circle and hoochie koo around with the birthday gal. So instead, I am running down the hall and hiding in the kitchen. Nightmare? No. Totally true. The idea of dancing, letting myself go, being uninhibited in front of a bunch of people I didn’t know was so uncomfortable, there was no way I was going to dance at that party. No way. Which is odd, because I love to dance. On my way home I thought about my behavior. Why had I done that? Why did the idea of dancing in front of all those people seem to be more awful than fun? I mean… I’ve been known to do the funky chicken… around the house….in front of my mirror…alone. Don’t you do that? I wondered about myself. Is this really you? You can’t just be silly and have fun in front of other people? What’s THAT about? I cranked up my radio and sang loudly, cabaret style, all the way home. I wasn’t much in the mood for self-reflection. I didn’t think about it again until one day my cousin put a very silly hat on my head and suggested that I wear it out. I was instantly mortified. There they were, all those feelings again. I didn’t want to feel foolish, ridiculous, embarrassed and self-conscious. I wanted that hat OFF! I didn’t want to be the center of attention…what would people think of me? And there it was. What will people think? This is why I call cancer the great clarifier and creator of strange silver linings. With days and weeks and months to contemplate my existence, a few things became breathtakingly clear. Why the heck was I even remotely concerned about what people thought? Why is it that what I’m guessing is in your head is more important to me than what is in my own? Why oh why did I ever stop myself from feeling joy because I was more concerned about what someone else was possibly thinking? Why am I doing the funky chicken in the closet? I don’t have to look far to find “be yourself” inspiration from my own family. Today my daughter has pinned her hair up like a movie star from the 1940s. She loves dressing up in vintage clothing. She has put on deep red lipstick and walks glamorously to the door with her backpack on her shoulders. She goes to school this way. I admire her bravery but I wonder how the other kids react to her style. We all know teens can be particularly cruel. I asked her about it and this is what she told me: “I get lots of positive comments from people and lots of other kids stare at me and give me strange looks. Those kids are basically telling me that they want me to conform. I make them uncomfortable by not trying to be like everyone else. I take it as a compliment because I don’t want to be like everyone else.” Wow. I hope she holds onto that forever. I hope she doesn’t need some awful illness to teach her to never give up those things that bring her happiness. Fabulous. There will never be another day that I don’t adorn myself with something that makes me feel good or that expresses who I am. I will never again stop myself from doing something that I love because I’m too concerned about what might be going on in someone else’s head. How many times have you stopped yourself from doing something that brings you joy because you were overly concerned about what other people might think? I know you have because I tried to get you to dance at my party and I think you said you had a broken foot. OK so maybe shaking your groove thing isn’t your idea of joy, but for me, the saying is true: life is too short to not dance at the party. What is stopping you from doing things that bring you happiness?